Office



No. 609,883. Patented Aug. 30, I898.

E. GIROD.

MOLD FUR LINOTYPE MACHINES.

(Application filed Dec. 24, 1897.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

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No. 609,883. Patented Aug. 30, I898. E. GIROD.

MOLD FOB LINOTYPE MACHINES.

(Application filed Dec. 24, 1897.;

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

1- uunms mzkg p0. Pubic-Una. wxsummou n c NITED STATES LPATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST GIROD, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE MERGENTHALER LINOTYPE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

' MOLD FOR LlNOTYPE-MACHINES.

srnerrrcArroiv forming part of Lettersjlatent No. ceases, dated August so, ices. Application filed December 24, 1897. Serial No. 663,334. (RemodeL) Patented in England May 17, 1897, No. 12,214.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ERNEST GIROD, a subject of the Queen of the United Kingdomof Great Britain and Ireland, residing at No. 36 Trent road, Brixton Hill, London, in the county of Surrey, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in and Connected with the Molds of Linotype-Machines, (for which I have obtained the following patent: Great Britain and Ireland, No. 12,214, dated May 17, 1897 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as part of this specification and read therewith, and one which will enable others skilled inthe art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to improvements in and connected with the molds of linotype-machines; and the objects of it are to provide for a temporary alteration in the length of the mold-cavity of a linotype-machine in the direction of shortening it and to prevent the ejector-blade sticking in the linotype. It has been developed with special reference to the mold of the well-known Mergenthaler linotype-machine. At the same time it must be understood that it is not restricted to the mold of that machine. In the latter, for instance, the composed line of matrices and space-bars is clamped between the jaws of a vise, and while it is i that position a. wheel having a face par llel with that of the aggregated edges of the said matrices and space-bars is pressed up against it with sufficient force to hold the two metaltight together. There is a cavity through the wheel from one side to the other, so positioned therein as to fit over and inclose the line of formative cavities in the edges of the matrices. This cavity serves as the moldcavity for the body of the linotype. The metal pot and pump are next moved up to the cavity in the wheel and metal is injected thereinto, whereby a linotype is cast.

The reader is referred'to the specification of Letters Patent No. 436,532, dated September 16, 1890, for further information about the above machine and the mechanisms and methods of it outside the scope of the present inof the body of the linotype. pieces were a cap-plate 0 and a'bottom piece vention. Between the dates of the said patcut and of the present one the construction of the mold hadbeen improved by removing the mold-cavity from the body of the wheel proper and putting it in a block detachable therefrom and known to operators of the machine as a mold-block.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as part of this specification and read therewith, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a combination of the present invention with a detachable mold-block; Fi 2, a plan of the bottompiece of the same mold-blockg' Fig. 3, a plan of the under face of the cap-plate; Fig. 4, a side elevation of the corresponding improved ejector-blade; Fig. 5, a side elevation of a stopping-bar; Fig. 6, a front elevation of a modification of the present invention; Fig. 7, a vertical section taken along the line 7 7 of Fig. 6; Fig. 8, a plan of the bottom piece of the moldblock; Fig. 9, a plan of the under face of the respective cap-plate Fig. 10, a replica of Fig. 6, except as to the position of thelockingpin; Figs. 11, 12, and 13, respectively, side elevation, front elevation, and perspective .view of the modified stopping-0E bar, while Fig. 1a is a perspective view of ahalf-column linotype and a half-column waster cast in the improved mold-block illustrated in Figs. 6 to 13.

A detachable mold-block consisted of four pieces so held together by two screws as to have a central or mold cavity 0 through it, corresponding in all its dimensions withthose The saidfour 0 having their opposite faces truly parallel and as wide as the depth of the linotypebody, two liners 0 0 of the same width as the cap-plate and bottom pieceand as thick as the linotype-body, and two holding-screws 0 0 These mold-blocks have been made adjustable for either length or thickness of linotype, or for both. The adjustment for thickness of linotype need not be mentioned here. That for length was efiected bysubstituting a liner capable of adjustment lengthwise from or toward the opposite fixed one 0 or for the fiXedleft-hand liner 0 or by equipping the mold-block with a series of separate and interchangeable liners, each of a different length, instead of with the one fixed liner 0 Such adjustable or interchangeable liners are admirably adapted to alter the length of the mold-cavity 0 when there is a permanent change in the length of the linotypes due to a fresh jobas, for instance, when a job on linotypes two and a half inches long is followed by one requiring linotypes three and one-fourth inches long; but the necessary adjustments will, under the circumstances stated, involve taking the moldblock off the mold-Wheel, taking the cap. plate 0 off the bottom piece 0 and replacing them both, and also changing the ejectorblade.

It sometimes happens, however, that peculiarities in the nature of the job call for a few lines of less than column length, all the preceding and all the subsequent lines in that job being of column length. Such a peculiarity occurs in nearly every cricket-score. A characteristic of the setup of one of these is that several paragraphs of full-length lines are followed by a pair of columns of halflength lines; but there is no change in the width of the columns of the newspaper. That .is uniform throughout the job.

The only change is in respect of a few lines as compared with the whole take. It is to meet such a case that the present invention has been developed, and it meets it by providing for the mold in which are cast the linotypes for the full lines being easily shortened to half-column or other shorter length without it being necessary either to remove it from i the mold-wheel or to move any one of the above-enumerated pieces of which the moldblock consists. Whether the mold-cavity 0 is'in a detachable mold-block or in the moldwheel does not matter as far as the present invention is concerned. Ihave illustrated it as applied to a mold-cavity in a detachablemold-block, for the reason that mold-cavities in the mold-wheel of a Mergenthaler linotypemachine have been discontinued for several years. i That being the case, the following expressions "cap-plateand bottom piece should be read as signifying, respectively, the top and bottom sides of the mold.

A further advantage conferred by the present invention is the prevention of what is known assticking of the ejector-blade in the linotypes. The ejector-blade is said to stick in the linotype when its nose wedges itself into the latter in the act of ejection instead of only pushing it forward. This sticktion, because, although it provides for the production of a linotype shorter than the full length of the mold-cavity 0, it also provides for the said cavity being filled with metal, sothat the nose of the ejector-blade (working with a constant force) always has a full surface as compared with a restricted one to bear against.

In carrying the invention into effect there is provided a thin stopping-0E bar 0 for the purpose of dividing the mold-cavity 0, so as to make one portion of it as short as is required. This bar is as long as the mold-cavity 0 is wide and wider than the distance between the cap-plate 0 and the bottom piece 0 There is a slot 0 across the face of the cap-plate o and a second one across the face of the bottom piece 0 exactly opposite it, the two slots being adapted by width and position to hold the stopping-off bar 0 across the mold-cavity 0 by respectively receiving its top and bottom side margins, the latter being the excess width of it over the said distance between cap-plate and bottom piece. There is a pair of slots 0 for each position which the bar 0 may be required to occupy. Figs. 1 to 4 indicate two positions and Figs. 6 to 13 one only. The nose of the bar 0 is preferably tapered off down the top edge to facilitate its entrance into the pair of slots into which it is to be introduced.

The ejector-blade is slotted along the proper lines to clear the stopping-off bar 0 in any of the positions which it may occupy in the mold-block. This slotting is clearly illustrated in Fig. at. 0 0 are the slots in that ejector blade which corresponds with the mold-block illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3. Ordinarily a side elevation of an ejector-blade would be drawn across the sheet. Fig. 4113.8 been given its special position to emphasize the correspondence between its slots 0 and all the positions of the stopping-off bar 0 Instead of the bottom slot of each pair of slots extending across the face of a bottom piece 0 in the way above described with reference to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, I prefer. to adopt the modification illustrated in Figs. 6 to 13. According to it the bar 0 is only as wide as the distance between the cap-plate 0 and the bottom piece 0 plus a margin to engage in the top slot 0 0 is a short plate fast to the bottom edge of the bar 0 and projecting symmetrically from each side of it near its head, the top of that plate being flush, with the bottom edge of the bar 0 and the front ends of it flush with the front end of that bar. (See Figs. 11 to 13.) A. corresponding notch is cut in the bottom piece 0 to receive the plate 0 ,which fits into that notch with its top surface flush with the top face of the said bottom piece. (See Fig. 10.)

o is a round pin adapted to turn in a transverse bore in the bottom piece 0 the axis of the said bore standing vertically and centrally under the respective slot 0 in the cap-plate 0 There is a transverse bore for each position of the stopping-off bar. All the is segmental in shape, reduced from being a cheese-head by the removal of a segment the versed side of which is not more than the projection of the said head beyond the pin-shank. The object of such removal is to make a way for the segmental piece 0 into the hole 0 described farther on. The piece 0 is fast to the bottom face of the plate 0 standing symmetrically thereon, at right angles therewith, parallel with the front ends of the said plate 0 and the bar 0 and behind the former for a distance not less than the thickness of the pin-head 0 o isacircular hole in the front face of the bottom piece 0 to receive the said pin-head o flush with the said front face. The axis of the hole 0 is near enough to the top face of the bottom piece 0 for the top of that hole to open into the notch in which fits the plate 0 The head 0 is notched or otherwise adapted to be turned screwwise, while the opposite end of the pin 0 is fitted with some suitable holding device standing flush with the respective surface of the mold-block, such as a saw-screw nut 0 When the operatoris running his machine to cast linotypes of full-column length, there is no stopping-bar 0 in the mold-cavity o, and the hole 0 is cut off from that cavity by the pin-head o presenting its longest radius against the notch in which fits the plate 0 Any projection from the side of a full-length linotype which the said notch or a bottom notch 0 may cause is removed by the ordinary trimming mechanism; but when he wants short-measure linotypes he stops the machine, exposes the mold-block, and pushes the stopping-off bar 0 nose first into the proper slots 0 till its ends are. flush with the respective faces of the mold block, if there are a pair of slots, or if there is a slot 0 in the cap-piece 0 only into it until the piece 0 is at the bottom of the hole 0 and the plate 0 in its notch. The head 0 is then turned through a part of a circle to stand in front of the piece 0 so as to lock the bar 0 in its Workin g position, such turning and locking being rendered practicable by the thinning down of the said head, so as to clear the piece 0 Figs. 6 and 7 show that the pin-head o is thinned down round it up to the segment 0 It is the periphery of this segment (heretofore referred to as the longest radius of the head) that cuts ofi the hole 0 from the mold-cavity 0 when a col umn-length linotype is to be cast. Figs. 6 and 7 show the position of the parts ready for the pin-head o to be turned through a part of a circle, and Fig. 10 shows the pin-head turned and the bar 0 locked.

The distance between the jaws of the vice in which the composed line of matrices is held must be shortened to a corresponding extent. In the Mergenthaler linotype-machine one of the jaws is capable of sliding to and from its fellow. The operator slides it toward its fellow accordingly and fixes it in its adjusted positiont'. e. the one corresponding with the position of the stopping-oft bar o by any suitable device--such, for instance, as the well-known backing-up block in general use among linotype-operators for backing up the said sliding jaw.

The short-measure linotype O c is cast in the right-hand division of the mold-cavity 0. O c is the typeless piece or waster cast on the opposite side of the stopping-off bar 0 to provide full surface for the nose of the ejector-blade to bear against. Fig. 14 shows the two-shortmeasure linotype and waster end to end, just as they lie in the cavity 0.

The invention does not limit me to the number of pairs of slots or of their equivalentstop slots and locking-pinswhich any mold or mold-block may be equipped with.

I claim-- 1. A linotype-mold provided with trans-v verse slots, in combination with a stoppingoif bar.

2. A linotype-mold, in combination with a removable transverse stopping-off bar, and a locking device to hold said bar.

3. A linotype-mold in combination with the removable stopping-off bar, substantially as described, and an ejector blade, slotted lengthwise, as described.

4. A mold for a linotype-machine provided with a removable stoppingoff or dividing plate whereby it may be adapted to form a single long linotype or a plurality of shorter linotypes.

In witness whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature, in presence of two Witnesses, this 18th day of November, 1897.

. ERNEST GIROD.

Witnesses:

CHAS. S. WooDRoFFE, WINIFRED DAVVES. 

